"Into this investment-parched landscape galumphs the American President with a cunning plan to correct the problem. The best way of addressing it would be simple reform of the USâ€™s grossly uncompetitive corporate tax rates. But no, thatâ€™s far too obvious a solution when something much more complicated and doomed to political stalemate can be proposed instead â€“ a one-off 14pc tax on the estimated $2 trillion US corporate surpluses held offshore, all that money then to be reinvested in the infrastructure spending that the private sector refuses to finance.

With a Republican majority in Congress, there is not a snowballâ€™s chance in Hades of Barack Obamaâ€™s plan ever reaching the statute books. If you were being charitable, you might argue that it is merely a way of kick-starting wider, bilateral talks on corporate tax reform. Be that as it may, the underlying political message is clear; the profiteering, tax-avoiding private sector wonâ€™t invest, so therefore the government must step in, confiscate the money and do the job instead." (telegraph.co.uk)

Lisa wrote:In uk we have a free health care system. It's not perfect . But it's saved many many lives. I get a feeling that evangelical Christians in the us are against a health care system..

As US said there's no such thing as FREE healthcare. The nation's finances are up the river without a paddle and one of the major contributors is that Government spending is out of control. Do you have any idea how much we spend annually on health and welfare? Do you know what proportion of Government spending this represents? Check it out some time. It might just open your eyes to the myth of FREE healthcare!

Sadly the situation can only get worse because more people are living to older ages and the population of people in work by comparison is shrinking each year. Which means that the few in work are having to support an ever increasing elderly population. The Government's spending is already significantly above tax receipts and each month they are having to borrow more and more to make ends meet. Look at the level of our national debt and you'll see that we are not only bankrupt (we are where Japan was 20 years ago and they've still not recovered!) but very soon we will not be able to service the interest costs on that debt!